In 1962 the Soviets swapped a U.S. airman to the Americans in return for their spies, but they kept the pilot's plane. Here's what happened to it.

It looks like Russia and the U.S. are negotiating the biggest spy swap since the Cold War ended, as accused and convicted spies in both nations are set to be bartered, and some being moved from prisons in America to Vienna in anticipation of a deal. The episode harkens to the 1960s, when spies were traded to maintain the brittle peace between nations. The most famous of these cases involved Francis Gary Powers, who was shot down in a U-2 spy plane while on a mission over the Soviet Union, near Svedlovsk.

The Pentagon didn't know Russian missiles could aim high enough to hit the airplane, which could reach 70,000 feet, but one in a volley of SA-2 missiles downed the U-2. Powers endured a flashy trial, was convicted of espionage and sentenced to three years' imprisonment and seven years of hard labor. He served one year and nine months before being traded for a Soviet spy arrested by the FBI, Col. Rudolph Ivanovich Abel.